ISLAMABAD — A year after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Pakistan is still struggling to embed democracy and battle Islamic extremism, the causes for which she died.

The same dark forces that appear to have killed Ms. Bhutto on this day last year – Islamic extremist groups based in Pakistan – seem to be behind the carnage in Mumbai last month, an event that pushed Pakistan into an even deeper crisis.

Tensions between Pakistan and India, which blames “elements from Pakistan” for the Mumbai attack, escalated sharply yesterday after Pakistani military officials said that troops had been “pulled back” from the Western border with Afghanistan. Unconfirmed reports said that thousands of troops had been redeployed to the border with India in what would be the first concrete sign that either side was preparing for conflict.

For Ms. Bhutto’s admirers, and for many other Pakistanis, the issue that rankles most on the first anniversary of her murder is the apparent lack of any investigation into who killed her, despite the fact that her own Pakistan Peoples Party was elected into government 10 months ago. This omission says much about the state of the country.

“The investigation of the [Bhutto] murder has remained suspended by fear of facing the demons within Pakistan’s body politic,” said Raza Rumi, a newspaper columnist. “She alarmed those who didn’t want a secular, civilian country. The unravelling of Pakistan can be dated as starting from her death.”

The PPP has asked the United Nations to form a commission to probe the assassination. The UN has agreed, but the inquiry has yet to begin and could take years. Soon after Ms. Bhutto’s death, her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, blamed “the establishment” for the killing, seemingly a reference to Pakistan’s extensive state security apparatus, a network that has had a long and close relationship with Islamic militant groups. Privately, many senior PPP members continue to see the hand of the state in the killing but feel impotent to do anything about it, despite being in government.

Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the militant leader whom Ms. Bhutto accused of plotting to kill her in a posthumously published book, remains at liberty in Pakistan – supposedly living in the capital, Islamabad. Mr. Akhtar, reputedly close to that Pakistani “establishment,” denies the charge and is suing her publisher and family for libel.

Analysts question how, if Ms. Bhutto’s party is not in a position to investigate her death, will it bring to justice the group that carried out the Mumbai attack?

Pakistan is awash in rumours that the government is about to be toppled, or at least that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will be ousted, a sign of how precarious democracy remains in a country that has been ruled by the army for more than half its existence.

In a message to mark the anniversary, Mr. Zardari – who became leader of the PPP after Ms. Bhutto’s death and remains a controversial figure – said that her death was not an attack on one individual.

“It was an attack on the viability of the state and for undermining the efforts to build democratic structures for fighting militancy,” he said.

The army has indicated it is subservient to civilian rule, but it has humiliated the government several times in its short tenure, especially over control of the military’s Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Ms. Bhutto used to say that democracy and defeating extremism are interdependent. The current weak civilian government, concerned over whether it will last, seems in no position to take on the militants and their powerful backers.

28 thoughts on “Dark forces still potent year after Bhutto’s slaying”

Some very vague and damaging correlation are used in this as to toeing the Indian line that the Mumbai attacks were orchestrated by Pakistan and that inability of the government to still cant get the alleged killer despite being in power.

What absolute power is required that present government does not have and if they cant still apprehend the culprits and will tak in the air like they are doing from day one then i am sure that the murder of the great leader will go in vain and as usual Pakistan will continue to travel on the fragile route it is moving on since inception.

Benazir Butoo did not follow any type of Islam; she neither had a Sufi or non-sufi views of Islam. She would visit the saints and mausoleums not because she believed in the philosophy but to please the voters to present, she was one of them. On the contrary she was a shrewd politician with the ego inherited from her father Z.A. Butoo to rule, who though a product of Army started with the left to raise the poor and oppressed of Pakistan yet selected the same old feudal, land owners and choudhrys in his government to control the poor voter. He was more concerned about his aristocratic legacy and family rule to be continued through his children. Benazir had the same philosophy of family rule which is now evident from her living will. Benazir’s assassination was an inside job and her husband was a party to that. Pakistan needs a new leadership which gives people hope, dignity, justice and prosperity, which is only possible when a leadership by itself is credible enough to have that trust from people.

Let me be brutally honest now. Yes., extremists have infiltrated Pakistan Army, Police, Judiciary, Administration, Media., and what not… just as RSS has infiltrated Indian Army, Indian Police, BSF, Indian Judiciary, Business, Administration and Media. This is the UGLY reality. The Mullah-Military axis has to be broken if Pakistan has to be saved. The RSS & Co. has to be broken if India is to be saved. Otherwise it will be the same story of riots, civil commotion and war every 20 years ! Extremism (both safforn and green) is worst than AIDS. Unfortunately 80 years of RSS propoganda (since 1926 to date / 24×7)., led to a reaction by Mullah-Military Combine. Both wanted to “excel” and out-do the other in “HATRED”. The result is for all to see. Unfortunately, no one is really interested in saving Jinnah’s Pakistan. It was an artificially created “nationality” (with a very high price… millions of muslims perished). The sub-nationalities raised their ugly heads. W.Punjab was the last to join the Pakistan movement (1946). It is now taking revenge against Pakistan. NWFP belonged to India (Congress / Dr Khan Sahib … ). Indira was right when she claimed that NWFP belonged to India. Balochistan was a fiefdom… Sind had political consciousness., and W. Punjab joined the movement in its LAST DAYS.

Unfortunately the hatred of 80 years cannot be un-done in 80 hours. Pakistan cannot undo the hatred that has permeated its society and its consciousness. India cannot undo the hatred that has permeated its consciousness. Savarkar rules the Indian consciousness. These are facts – and destructive facts at that.

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